Passenger Trains > Cardinal Running Over 5 Hours Late

I came across a stationary Cardinal (#51) 5 miles west of Indianapolis Union Station at noon today. At that point it was over 5:15 hours late. I believe the problem was with P42 #154, since there was a leased unit (CEFX 3184) at the point of the train. Radio traffic from the train at 12:05 PM indicated they has "solved" the problem with the air, so the train then accelerated west. The arrival time on the Amtrak status site calls for arrival in Chicago just over 5 hours late.

Well good! That means that tonight's 850 will be five or more hours late leaving the Windy City because Amtrak, in its infinite wisdom, doesn't have any spare crews who are qualified on the route to Indianapolis.

Mechanical breakdowns will happen. It shouldn't take five hours to find a spare engine when you're less than 20 miles from Beech Grove, but this is Amtrak, and someone has to be found who is qualified over the line, and some cooperation is necessary from the host railroad (the wonderful CSXT). Those issues can combine to make things move very, very slowly.

Pitiful, indeed.

timecruncher

The Cardinal, train 51 of Sunday November 5th, arrived at Alexandria VA almost 2 hours behind schedule. The baggage man at ALX said the train was delayed by catenary problems on the Northeast Corridor. 233 miles out of the starting gate, the train was already almost 2 hours late.

I noticed the consist was reversed from the usual ... 1 Genesis P42 locomotive, 1 Viewliner sleeper, 1 Amdinette and 3 Amfleet coaches.

Is the sleeper normally the last car on the Cardinal? If so, I will ride it sooner than later as I always enjoyed looking out the back in the days when sleepers were normally at the rear of the train.

I have ridden it three times in the past month, both east and west, Viewliner has always been on the rear.

What is up with the East Coast long distance trains operating with only 3 Amfleet II cars? The Cardinal operating with one Viewliner is also ridiculous, course I think this train should revert back to Superliner equipment and originate/terminate in DC at this point due to its operations of being combined with another train on the corridor - more logistics to work out eastbound than probably what it is worth.

I even remember when the East Coast trains ran with more cars. And these cars do not ride empty. I can give stories of Amtrak busing passengers due to an accidental overbooking and only having 3 Amfleet II's in the consist. Amtrak should be flexible to add or subtract coach cars as demand warrants. I am sure on some days, the Cardinal or Crescent may do just fine on its entire route with just 2 coaches. But on some days, it certainly could use extras.

I will refrain from comments of the long distance day trains (i.e. Adirondack, Vermonter, Ethan Allen Express) that have been booked up well in advance of the Thanksgiving holiday. No extra cars for these trains at all! At least the NEC will get a few extra holiday special trains.

Repost from AA
Message #137167 of 137186

Cardinal, Train 51(05) with AMTK 154 stopped at West Maysville on CSX Cincinnati Subdivision account lost main reservoir air, unable to recharge over 103 pounds. Crew was unable to restore proper function
with aid from Chicago Mechanical and CNOC, diagnosed brake valve service portion probably in STATE OF GOOD REPAIR. CSX could not provide a freight unit at Maysville. Train continued with 103 pounds of main
reservoir pressure, at reduced speed to Cincinnati, where freight unit CSX 3138 was added.